JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The positivity rate of COVID-19 cases in Duval County is close to 35 percent, according to the latest numbers from the Florida Department of Health. With COVID numbers spiking in the midst of flu season, it can be hard, and at times near impossible, to determine if you have a cold, the flu or COVID.
"The take home message here is that if you have symptoms of an upper respiratory illness, it is very hard to know whether it is COVID, or the flu or the cold from looking up different symptoms in a textbook,” Dr. Shalika Katugaha, System Medical Director of Infectious Diseases at Baptist Health, said.
According to Katugaha, flu and COVID symptoms may come more abruptly compared to cold symptoms.
There are some nuances for each illness, however, Katugaha and Chad Neilsen, Director of Infection Prevention at UF Health Jacksonville, said.
"Loss of the sense of taste or smell is a pretty hallmark symptom that you're going to find with COVID that you won't find really in any other type of respiratory illness or virus," Neilsen said.
“We are hearing anecdotal evidence of night sweating in certain patients who are testing positive for COVID. Again, that's not really a feature of the flu. Night sweating typically is because of fevers, and not all flu patients get those fevers," Neilsen added. "So, some people with omicron are experiencing night sweats."
Neilsen and Katugaha said getting tested is the best way to figure out which illness you have.
"Many diagnoses you can just make something called a clinical diagnosis, where we look at someone and we can say, 'Oh, this is what you have.' But right now, when it comes to COVID, flu, cold, allergies, we can't just look at someone and say, 'Okay, this is what you have,'" Katugaha explained. "What we have are the tests, and that's why it's so important to utilize them."
If you can't find a COVID test, use process of elimination, Neilsen said.
"Do a flu test at the doctor's office. If it's not flu, but it still is a viral infection, it's likely going to be omicron COVID at this point,” he explained.
Neilsen said if you start to get cold or virus-like symptoms, get tested. It's likely COVID.
"If you're experiencing something that's sort of out of your baseline, so if you have normal sinuses and you're having sinuses right now or something of that nature, you're probably fine," Neilsen explained. "But, if you start getting sniffly, you start getting some symptoms that are not usual for you, it could point to a COVID infection."
“There are still viruses floating around out there, cold viruses out there. There is some more influenza activity right now than we've seen in the past. But, by and large, it's omicron COVID spreading right now through the community," he added.
It is possible to get COVID and the flu at the same time, although both Katugaha and Neilsen said they haven't seen a large number of cases of what's called flurona.
"This exactly what happens. Viruses are opportunists. So, when one comes and gets you down, then the another can come and take advantage of the situation and just join in and have fun. That's what they do," Katugaha said.
Both recommend getting vaccinated for the flu and COVID because they said you're more likely to have mild symptoms if you get either illness.